[0:00] Two weeks before Christmas. So, let's have a Christmas sermon.! Let's start those. So take your Bibles and turn to Luke.! Luke chapter 2.
[0:10] Man, I'm really messing up this. Luke chapter 2. Luke chapter 2. Passage you know well. Probably a lot of you could say it from memory. I grew up in a home.
[0:24] My parents got saved when I was three years old. And it became a tradition in our house that before we could open presents on Christmas morning, we read this passage of Scripture.
[0:43] Every year, time from three years old on up. When I came home from college, we were still reading this Christmas morning before we would open presents and stuff.
[0:56] So, Luke chapter 2, beginning at verse 1. And it came to pass in those days that there went out a decree from Caesar Augustus that all the world should be taxed.
[1:08] And this taxing was first made when Cyrenius was governor of Syria. And all went to be taxed, everyone into his own city. And Joseph also went up from Galilee out of the city of Nazareth into Judea, unto the city of David, which is called Bethlehem, because he was of the house and lineage of David, to be taxed with Mary, his espoused wife, being great with child.
[1:33] And so it was that while they were there, the days were accomplished that she should be delivered. And she brought forth her firstborn son, wrapped him in swaddling clothes, laid him in a manger, because there was no room for them in the inn.
[1:46] And they were in the same country shepherds abiding in the field, keeping watch over their flock by night. And lo, the angel of the Lord came upon them, and the glory of the Lord shone round about them.
[1:58] And they were sore afraid. And the angel said unto them, Fear not, for behold, I bring you good tidings of great joy, which shall be to all people. For unto you is born this day in the city of David a Savior, which is Christ the Lord.
[2:14] And this shall be a sign unto you. You shall find the babe wrapped in swaddling clothes, lying in a manger. And suddenly there was with the angel a multitude of the heavenly hosts, praising God and saying, Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace, goodwill toward men.
[2:31] And it came to pass, as the angels were gone away from them into heaven, the shepherds said one to another, Let us now go even unto Bethlehem, and see this thing which has come to pass, which the Lord hath made known unto us.
[2:46] And they came with haste, and found Mary and Joseph, and the babe lying in the manger. And when they had seen it, they made known abroad the saying which was told them concerning this child.
[2:57] And all they that heard it wondered at those things which were told them by the shepherds. But Mary kept all these things, and pondered them in her heart. And the shepherds returned glorifying and praising God for all the things that they had heard and seen as it was told unto them.
[3:17] Let's have a word of prayer. Father, help us this morning as we look at this passage of scripture. Lord, I pray that you would just open our minds and hearts to the things that are here.
[3:29] Lord, that you would work in our hearts. Lord, that we would remember why we celebrate this season. We would remember the beginning of it all.
[3:43] The salvation story that has been made known unto us. Lord, I pray that you would just bless this time that we have. Help us to rejoice in our hearts. Help us to have just a reminder of what a great God we have.
[3:58] Lord, thank you for what you're about to do. In Jesus' name, amen. You know, most people, Christmas is a wonderful time of the year.
[4:10] Ah, we just love Christmas. Don't we? We've been anticipating it for a long time. Some of you had trees up in November. Some of you started playing Christmas music in November. It snowed in November.
[4:23] Hmm, I wonder if there's a correlation there. But we love celebrating this time of year. You know, we celebrate a Savior who came to give us salvation from our sin.
[4:39] And we do it with all kinds of different things. You know, we have family gatherings. We have food that we eat. We have Christmas carols that we listen to.
[4:50] It's a time of giving and receiving. It's a time of reflecting on what God has done for us. It's a time of thanksgiving. Thanksgiving comes just before Christmas. And we thank God for everything that he has done for us.
[5:04] But Christmas can also be, for some people, a time of loneliness, a time of sorrow, a time of remembering those who are no longer with us, a time of maybe overindulgence.
[5:23] We overindulge in a lot of foods that we shouldn't probably eat. We overindulge in the amount of money that we spend on presents for people. Maybe we shouldn't do that either.
[5:35] You know, there's a lot of things we try to, we try to overcompensate for. We try to use Christmas as a time to make up for maybe things we did during the year. Christmas is also for the church, a time of celebration.
[5:52] The Lord Jesus Christ came to earth to offer us the salvation that we have. He'd free us from our sin, free us from the wrath of God, free us from the fires of hell.
[6:06] God gave us Christ. Christ. You go around the church here, and you know, you sing the Christmas carols like we did this morning, and we'll sing, sometimes we'll have Christmas cantatas and things, and it's just a lot of celebration of what God has done for us.
[6:29] And then you'll see around it, different places you'll see the nativity. You notice the picture I have up on the screen here. Notice who is not there.
[6:40] The wise men are not there, because the wise men were not there when that happened. We always put them in there, but if you study the scriptures, they weren't there that night. They came later. But you look at the people who were there, Mary and Joseph, baby, shepherds.
[6:58] I'm sure there's angels around. You know, we have this nativity that reminds us that God came in the flesh. God walked among us.
[7:11] And we remember that, and we glorify God for everything that he has done. When you see nativity, you know, it's quaint, it's simplistic. If you've ever been to a Christmas pageant and watched little kids in their bathrobes, brings a smile to our face, it just brings a smile to your face.
[7:32] No, just remembering that. You know, the things that happened and the things that took place on that night as we remember. And you think about it. When we look at that nativity scene and we look at, and we remember the things, everything connected with that nativity scene is people who worshipped Jesus Christ.
[7:56] They came and they were there. The angels worshipped him. Talked about that here in chapter 2. The shepherds worshipped him. Talks about that there. The wise men, when they finally get there in Matthew chapter 2, they will worship him as well.
[8:13] So everybody we see is there because Jesus is there and they're going to worship him and they're going to be so thrilled that he's there, you know, and Dana, got another one down here not working.
[8:29] Okay. So, they are worshipping him. But did Jesus only come for the people who would worship him? Did he only come for those who were thrilled that he was there?
[8:43] No. Bible says he came for the entire world. He came for all. Matter of fact, in Mark chapter 2, verse 17, Jesus is talking and he says, when Jesus heard it, he said unto them, they that are whole have no need of the physician, but they that are sick.
[9:02] I came not to call the righteous, but the sinners to repentance. He says, I came for those who needed me because they're sinners. I came for those who need me because they need salvation.
[9:16] Which means what? He came for everybody. All of us. So, every person in this world, Jesus came for because we're all sinners.
[9:27] Because we all have gone the wrong way. So, this morning, you know, I've been reading and I've read sermons and I've read books and I've read different things and I came up with a title, The Forgotten People.
[9:42] The Forgotten People of Christmas. I mean, we remember these people. No problem remembering them and who they are. But what about some of the other people that Jesus came for?
[9:55] First of all, he came for the ignorant. The ignorant. And then when I say ignorant, I do not mean stupid. I do not mean dumb. I mean those who did not know.
[10:07] That's what I mean by ignorant. Those who did not know. Let me show you. Verse 1. It says, And it came to pass in those days that there were not a decree from Caesar Augustus that all the world should be taxed.
[10:26] Caesar Augustus. You want to talk about a smart guy, a guy who knew things, a guy who was a leader of the biggest empire the world has ever known. He was no dummy. But he was ignorant about the things that were taking place.
[10:42] He was ignorant about the things that were going on. He wanted his people to be taxed. When it says taxing there, it has the idea, two ideas behind it. He was bringing people back to their hometowns to fill out a census to check and see who, you know, where everybody was, who they were, were they still alive, and all that sort of stuff, and to collect money and to be taxed.
[11:03] So he's doing this, and he's getting ready to raise revenue for Rome, and he's getting ready to take care of things, and so he calls them all in to their hometown.
[11:18] See, Caesar wasn't looking for a God to come. He wasn't looking for a Savior to come. Caesar's mind, he was a God. All the Caesars, they were gods.
[11:28] Did you know that once a year in the Roman Empire, you had to take a pinch of incense and put it on a burning altar and worship Caesar once a year?
[11:40] You had to do that because Caesar thought himself as God. Caesar did not know that by having this taxation take place, he was ignorant of the fact that he was being used by the one true living God to accomplish his purpose and what he wanted done.
[12:05] By Caesar doing this, he's helping fulfill prophecy by issuing this thing about taxation. And why was it happening now?
[12:16] Well, Galatians chapter 4, verses 4 and 5, it says this, But when the fullness of time was come, God sent forth his son, made of a woman, made under the law to redeem them that were under the law that we might receive the adoption of sons when the fullness of time was come.
[12:39] Why did God pick this time? Why did he have Caesar, have all these people going to their hometowns in order to do this? Well, you remember back when God first started everything, he told Adam and Eve there was going to come a day when there would come a conflict and that Satan would try to kill God, kill his son.
[13:08] And he said, you're going to bruise his head, but he's going to, you're going to bruise his heel, but he's going to bruise your head. He says, he's going to defeat you, Satan. And here was the perfect time.
[13:19] Why was it the perfect time? Roman law. This vast empire. Roman law was in control of it all. The laws were the same here and here and here and here.
[13:31] So wherever they went, they were under the same law. How many times do we read in Scripture about Paul saying, you know what? I'm a Roman citizen. And that changed everything.
[13:43] When he said he was a Roman citizen, that changed how they treated him and what they did with him. So they had Roman law. Some of you from school may remember the Pax Romana, the Roman peace.
[13:58] There was peace. There was no wars, no conflicts, nothing happening throughout that empire. And so these missionaries like Paul and others could go wherever and not have to worry about it.
[14:12] How about the Roman roads? Rome built some of the most intricate long-lasting roads ever. We still have places that have Roman roads today.
[14:25] Roman aqueducts, Roman bridges, Roman roads. And they're still being used. 2,000 years later, they're still being used. They built the best system for getting around in their empire.
[14:42] And we'll leave one Roman thing out, the Greek language. Remember the Greek had been the empire before? They had taken their language everywhere. And Greek language was used everywhere.
[14:52] It was the most common language. So God says, when the fullness of time was come, when it was the easiest to do that, you know, some may say, well, what about today? Today's easy because we have different ways of communication and different things, but we also have a lot of separation.
[15:08] In the time of Rome, there was no separation. It was all one big empire. Micah 5.2 says this, But thou, Bethlehem Ephrata, though thou be little among the thousands of Judah, yet out of thee shall he come forth unto me, that is, to be ruler in Israel, those whose goings forth have been from old and from everlasting.
[15:36] God had promised through Micah and others, Jesus was going to come from Bethlehem. Augustus puts out his word. We're going to tax everybody.
[15:47] You need to go back to your hometowns. Joseph goes back to where? Bethlehem. Takes Mary, his wife, who's pregnant with him, to Bethlehem. They go to Bethlehem because God had prophesied it.
[16:01] God had told them that's where it was going to happen. And then you look here in chapter 2, Augustus puts out all the world's going to be taxed. Verse 4 says, Joseph went and he went to the city of David which is called Bethlehem to be taxed.
[16:17] See, Augustus was ignorant about all the different things he was doing. He thinks it was all his idea. But God is leading him all the way to do these different things that he did.
[16:31] God does the same thing today. He will use those. We just finished the book of Esther. And how many times have we seen in the book of Esther that the kings involved in Esther, Darius, Cyrus, and the other.
[16:49] They were used by God to do certain things because God had said this is the way he wants it done. Remember we talked about Cyrus. Cyrus was prophesied in scripture 150 years before he ever became king.
[17:02] But his name was used in scripture saying he is going to do this. See guys like Cyrus, Darius, Caesar, Augustus. Remember in Romans chapter 10 verse 13 it says this for whosoever shall call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved.
[17:22] Whosoever. These guys are among the whosoever's that had the opportunity. God did these things so that these people could have the word of God come to them.
[17:34] They could have the knowledge of salvation come to them. So the ignorant, God came for them, not just the worshippers, but he came for the ignorant as well.
[17:45] Second, he came for the indifferent. The indifferent. Where do I get that from? Look at verse 7. Verse 7 says, He brought forth her firstborn son, wrapped him in swaddling clothes, laid him in a manger, because there was no room for them in the inn.
[18:06] The indifferent. The innkeeper. The innkeeper. You know, you think about it. Here we are, ancient Israel, Middle East.
[18:19] Their inns are not like Jane's Best Western in Bar Harbor. You know, they're not like that. They were basically a house with a compound, walls around it, doors, and people could come in and they could spend the night inside the compound, you know, sleeping, you know, they might have awnings and things to give them some shelter and stuff, but it also gave them some safety, some protection, and the innkeeper would get paid so much for them to be able to stay there, having food and drink and things for them while they were there.
[18:50] So, he's paid to help take care of them, to meet their needs there. So, here's Joseph, he arrives at the inn with a very pregnant Mary, and here she is on a donkey, and she's very pregnant and stuff, and they're like, we need a place, could happen any time, sorry, we don't have any room.
[19:15] He's indifferent, he doesn't care. He's got his money, he's got a full place, we don't have any place, find somewhere else to go. Well, I have a question, it never mentions his wife, so I don't know if he, because I think if he had had a wife, she would have said, what do you think you're doing?
[19:37] That woman's pregnant, get her in here. She would have said, they can have our room. This guy never thought of that. Give up his room. Finally, you know, sorry, you finally come, hey, you know, there's out there where we keep the animals, there is place out there, you can go there.
[19:55] He doesn't care. Does this sound like our world today? A whole lot of people who don't care. There are a lot of people who just think, you know, they're indifferent to everything that's taking place.
[20:08] When you tell them about Jesus, you tell them about what he has done, they're like, hmm, you know, they don't realize that they, Jesus came to die for the indifferent.
[20:22] As well. Not just the people who are in the nativity, but he came to die for that innkeeper. He came to die for all of those. All the people today, they came to die for those.
[20:35] You remember Jesus said in John chapter 1 verse 11, he says, he came unto his own, and his own received him not. He came for his own people.
[20:47] He came for the Jews. He came for those, and they like, you know, they didn't believe him. Remember when it came time for Jesus crucifixion? Nope, we don't want him.
[20:58] Just crucify him. It doesn't matter. Just take him away. Imagine, God himself comes to bring salvation that we can have and we're indifferent toward it.
[21:14] how many of us as Christians are indifferent? What do I mean by that? We're saved, we know it, we're going to heaven, we're good, but how about the people around us?
[21:27] Are we indifferent toward them? And what's going to happen to them? Are we indifferent to what's going to take place there? John chapter 7 verse 37 says this, in the last day, that great day of the feast, Jesus stood and cried and said, if any man thirst, let him come unto me and drink.
[21:47] If any man thirst, let him come to me. I will take whosoever, anyone, you come, I will take you in.
[22:00] So we have the ignorant, like Caesar Augustus. We have the indifferent, like the innkeeper. How about, and here's a big word, incredulous.
[22:12] You know how hard it is to find a word that starts with an eye? Incredulous means doubters, unbelieving. He came for the doubters, he came for the unbelieving.
[22:26] Look back at verse 15, there in chapter 2. Verse 15, down through 18. And it came to pass, as the angels were gone away from them into heaven, the shepherd said one to another, let us now go even unto Bethlehem, and see this thing which has come to pass, which the Lord hath made known unto us.
[22:47] The angels come, they make the shepherds aware of what's happening, what's going on, and they're saying, let's go check it out. Verse 19, no, verse 16. And they came with haste, and found Mary, and Joseph, and the babe lying in a manger, and when they had seen it, they made known abroad the saying that was told them concerning this child, and all they that heard it wondered at those things which were told them by the shepherds.
[23:20] The incredulous, the doubters, the unbelieving. The angel talks to the shepherds, they hear the story about what's going, what is their first reaction?
[23:31] Their first reaction is, let's go check this out. Let's go see if this is really happening. So they had some doubts, but they had enough interest, enough curiosity, that's an interesting thing that just happened here.
[23:47] I'm thinking a host of angels appearing in heaven in the sky would give my attention too. And so they said, let's go, we'll go check this out. And so away they go in verse 18 and it says they told other people afterwards as they're going back, hey, you will not believe what we just saw.
[24:05] You will not believe angels appeared to us in the sky. We went to this place in Bethlehem. There he was, he was right there. We got to see him. And the people wondered. They were impressed, they marveled, they were astonished at the things that they were hearing.
[24:22] And what was he? You know, the most astonishing thing about it though is here's the Messiah that God has promised all the prophecies we know. He's right there. And they hear all of this and they wondered and not a one of them went to check it out.
[24:40] Not a one other than the shepherds. If you heard that Jesus Christ was here, if he appears in the sky, aren't you going to check it out?
[24:58] Actually, you won't have time if you're saved because he's going to appear in the sky and we're going to go with him. But if it was normal circumstances, I see somebody in the sky and they're telling me they're Jesus and I'm like, I may not believe this but I'm going to check it out and see if it is.
[25:18] They heard the story. It impressed them. But not a one of them went to look. How sad is that? How many people have you told about the Lord Jesus Christ?
[25:35] How many people have you said, this is who Jesus is. This is what he has done for me. And they're like, that's nice. You know, I'm always amazed, family and friends, of someone who's gotten saved.
[25:55] And they see the change that has taken place in their life. They hear the difference in their voice. They hear the difference in the language they use. They see the things that they do. And it's completely changed from what they used to be.
[26:08] And they're going, that's good for you. But they're not willing to check it out themselves. Why? Why? You know, we preach a gospel that tells the world they can be saved.
[26:26] That they can have Jesus Christ as their savior. They can spend all eternity in heaven with him, with the father, with others. And they're like, that's good for you.
[26:40] I don't really care. I don't really think that's true anymore. Wow. To not even check it out. To not even, you remember Jesus came and he dealt with people like this.
[26:59] They were too busy, they were too caught up in their own things, they were too caught up in their own lives. Remember the story of the rich young ruler? You don't have to turn there, but it's over in Mark chapter 10.
[27:10] And the story of that rich young ruler, he came to Jesus. He's looking for answers. He has questions. He wants to know what Jesus has to say about these different things.
[27:22] And Jesus tells them. And what did he decide? Well, it sounds really good. I think it really, that would do me some good. I think that would be, but the cost is too high.
[27:34] I have to give up the life I have to follow the life you want me to have. Nope, that's too much for me to do. And the interesting thing about it is, in verse 21 of Mark chapter 10, as he's going away, it says, and Jesus loved him.
[27:52] Why did Jesus come to this earth? He came for him, but he's going to reject it. He's going to go his own way, do his own thing, and he rejects what Jesus Christ has done for him.
[28:12] You know, it's great that he came to Jesus. It's great that he came and asked questions of Jesus. It's great that he knew that Jesus would have the answers that he needed, but he left.
[28:27] He left without acknowledging Jesus for who he is. You know, we come to church, we hear a sermon like this, and we leave without accepting Jesus as Savior.
[28:48] we leave without acknowledging who Jesus is. What good did it do us? Jesus came by, Jesus was there, you got to hear about him, you got to see people who live according to what he wants them to do, they live according to his life, and you just say, a Christian invites you, a Christian gives you the word of God and says, this is what you need in your life, this is what you have to have in order to live the kind of life that I now have, this is what you have to have in order for God to change your life, and we hear it and we just walk on by.
[29:33] see, invitations are given all the time, it's not until we stop and say, Jesus, I need you in my life, I need you as my savior, my life under my control is not working, I need you, and asking him to come into your life, asking him to change your life, see, the news that God loves you, that might impress you, God loves you, Bonnie's told about some of the ladies she visits in the jail sometimes, when, usually when she meets somebody in the jail for the first time, she'll go in, she'll say, the first thing I want you to know is that God loves you, and she says, right then, they'll start tearing up, God loves you, God loves Caesar Augustus,
[30:34] God loved the innkeeper, God loved these people that were spoken to by the shepherds, he loves them, he loved the rich young ruler, but that wasn't enough, they needed to say, I will take what you have to give me, I will take what you're offering me, I will take the salvation that you came to provide for me, you know, Isaiah 55 6 says, seek ye the Lord while he may be found, call ye upon him while he is near, you know, God's not going to give opportunity after opportunity after opportunity, when you're here and you're hearing the message of the gospel, he says, here, it's for you, take it, when you're talking with a Christian friend and they give you the gospel and they say, here, take it, now's the time, take it, those are times that God is saying to you, look, here's what
[31:37] I did for you, here's how much I love you, I put you here to hear the gospel, I put you in this person's path to hear the gospel, I put you with this person so you can hear the story of God and his love toward us, accept it, and yet so often we go our own way and do our own thing.
[32:03] Acts chapter 16, verse 31, probably all know it, and they said, believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and thou shalt be saved and thy house.
[32:14] Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ. I believe that Jesus Christ came to pay the price for my sin. I believe that Jesus Christ was born, took on human flesh.
[32:27] John 1 14, it's not on the screen, but John 1 14 says the word became flesh and dwelt among us. The incarnation, God becoming man is a real thing.
[32:39] I believe that. Jesus Christ went to the cross to pay for my sin. I believe that. Jesus Christ rose again and ascended back into heaven.
[32:51] I believe that. Jesus Christ is coming again and taking me to heaven with him. I believe that. He says believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and thou shalt be saved.
[33:06] How do I know I'm saved? Because I believe what Jesus Christ did for me. I believe in Jesus Christ. I believe in what he has done. I believe him and all that he has given to me.
[33:21] Do you believe that this morning? do you know him as savior this morning? If not, the message you have just heard, God is passing by today.
[33:34] He's given you an opportunity. He's allowed you to hear the message of the gospel. And it's not a hard message. Believe in what I've done for you.
[33:48] God died for Caesar Augustus just the way he was. God died for the innkeeper just the way he was.
[34:00] God died for all those people who heard and wondered what the shepherds were talking about just the way they were. He didn't ask them to do anything. He didn't ask them to change anything.
[34:12] He said, you come to me. You ask me to come into your life. I'll take care of the changing. I'll take care of what you need. I will give you what you need. You just come to me and allow me to do my work in your life.
[34:27] That's it. Just allow me to work. Allow me to do it. We haven't sung this in a while but we're going to sing this morning just as I am. It's going to be on the screen behind us.
[34:39] And in that song the version we're using it talks about we become broken. We're broken. God wants to work in our lives. He wants to fix us.
[34:50] He wants to mend us. He wants to make us exactly the way he intended us to be. Are we willing to do that? Are we ready to believe on him? If you're here this morning and you've never asked Jesus Christ to be your savior, come talk to me afterwards.
[35:06] I will take the word of God. I will show you how you know. Talk to the person sitting next to you maybe. See, they can take the word of God and show you. Most everybody in here could do that.
[35:16] They can show you how to be saved. But don't leave here without acknowledging Jesus Christ came to save me.
[35:27] the Bible tells us he came to seek and to save that which was lost. So many are wandering around not knowing where they're going or what they're doing. Jesus says, come to me.
[35:39] I will give you the direction you need in your life. Let's stand. Let's stand. Let's stand. Let's stand. Let's stand. up. Thank you.